Install the Old Version of Windows Live Essentials on XP

If you’re an XP user, unfortunately you won’t be able to install and upgrade to Windows Live Essentials 2011. XP users can still install the previous version through Windows Updates, and we’ll take a quick look at it.

2011 on XP – Sorry No Love from Microsoft

If you try to install Windows Live Essentials 2011 on XP which we’ve previously covered for Vista and Windows 7, unfortunately you’re out of luck. You can download the installer file, but when you try to run it, you’ll be greeted with a similar error.

Install Windows Live Essentials on XP

The good news for XP users is you can still download the previous version through Windows Updates…which you should be running regularly anyway…but it’s not an essential update. To install it, launch Windows Update from the Start Menu…

Or through Internet Explorer from the Tools Menu.

Once your system is scanned for the updates it needs, you’ll find Windows Live Essentials in the Software, Optional section.

After it downloads, you’ll need to accept the license terms.

Now, like in Windows Live Essentials 2011 for Vista and Windows 7  – you can select the programs you want or don’t want. The choice is up to you and you might want to experiment a little and see what works for you and what doesn’t.

The installation of you picked will kick off. The amount of time it takes will vary depending on how many programs you selected and your Internet speed.

Then of course Microsoft being Microsoft, they want to see if you want to change your homepage to MSN and help improve their software. Again this is up to you, but you might not want MS collecting your data. Everything is selected by default, so you’ll need to uncheck the options you don’t want and Continue.

Now you can start using your Live Essentials applications. In this example we just installed a couple to give you an idea of what to expect.

The apps in the WLE Suite basically accomplish the same job as in WLE 2011, but 2011 has more options for the architecture of Vista and Windows 7.

Find out more about the official system requirements of Windows Live Essentials 2011.